The total number of coronavirus infections in California has reached close to one million, health officials said Sunday, adding that a new strain – different from the first known highly contagious type in the United Kingdom – is popping up more frequently across the state.
Researchers have identified the strain in a dozen counties and linked it to several large outbreaks in Santa Clara County. The California Department of Public Health said it was not yet clear if the variable was highly contagious or just being identified frequently as lab work became more sophisticated.
Studies of changes in the genome sequence of the virus have found strain at community test sites and outbreak samples at Santa Clara County laboratories, officials said, adding that “a very large number of people were infected with the virus,” officials said.
Dr. Santa Clara County Health Officer and Director of the Department of Public Health. “The virus continues to evolve and adapt, and we can’t take our guard down,” Sara Cody said in a statement.
The new variant has also been reported in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco, San Bernardino, San Diego, Humboldt, Lake, Mono, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.
Scientists say they do not know how prevalent the strain is, as viral genomic sequencing is not performed anywhere in the state or country.
UC San Francisco virologist Dr. The spike protein undergoes three mutations in the variant, which binds and enters the virus cells, Charles Chi said.
Two COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. market, manufactured by Pfizer-Bioentech and Modern, train the body’s immune system to target spike proteins. This means that, in theory, virus mutations can alter spike proteins to the degree that the vaccine becomes less effective.
Chiu said researchers are prioritizing the study of variables and working to determine whether the virus is “more contagious or affects the effectiveness of the vaccine.”
Not the same as the highly contagious strain first reported last month in the United Kingdom. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday that a UK variant called the B117 would be available in the U.S. by March. The dominant coronavirus in strain can become as it spreads rapidly.
Los Angeles County on Saturday confirmed its first case of type B117 in a man who spent time in the county but is now in solitude in Oregon.
On Sunday, the total number of California residents who received a positive coronavirus test reached 2.96 million.
Officials in LA County reported 108 deaths and 11,366 new positive cases Sunday, including a total of 13,848 deaths and more than 1 million reported cases. Officials warned that the data reported on Sunday could be artificially low due to delays in reporting over the holiday weekend.
Many people have died in Los Angeles County as authorities temporarily suspended air-quality regulations that limit the number of funerals. Health officials and the LA County Coroner called for the change because the current death rate is “more than double the year before the epidemic, causing hospitals, funeral homes and cemeteries to exceed capacity, without the ability to process backlogs,” South Coast Air said. The Quality Management District said Sunday.
In at least one hope, L.A. The number of people admitted to COVID-19 hospital in the county has dropped this week, from 910 on Monday to 49,498 on Sunday, falling below a peak of 8,000, health officials said. About 23% of hospitalized patients are in intensive care.
The proportion of people taking coronavirus tests and achieving a positive result also dropped slightly, from 16.5% on Monday to 14%. Officials say the drowning could be a sign that the infection is starting to subside after the holiday surge.
Meanwhile, in Orange County, health officials reported 1,448 new cases and 47 deaths. The county now has a total of 210,813 cases and 2,367 deaths.
